I decided to read this one for the 4th of July extra space! It fits Main Street #10, which means that I'll be rolling off that one on July 5th. I hope this is good - I haven't read Richard Russo before, so I have no preconceived thoughts about his writing.

This book is set in the titular Empire Falls, a small town in Dexter County, Maine. From looking at GR, I can see that Char really liked it, so that is a strong endorsement!

Second, we're going to have a location multiplier: the first time you finish a square is the baseline reward. The second time, your reward is enhanced by 50%, and the third time, the reward is doubled again:

This is prospective only, so start keeping track of the number of times you land on a square going forward.

Third, what are you going to do with all of that money? Well, you can hoard it all for the win. In the alternative, you can spend it in two ways: free rolls and roll aheads. A free roll will cost you $2.00. If you don't like the square you landed on, buy a free roll and roll again right away to get onto a new square. Roll aheads can be bought if you are going on vacation or are going to be incommunicado for a while - they are only $1.00, and you can buy up to 5 at a time, to plan vacation reading.

Fourth is free book Friday. Regardless of the square you are on, you get a free choice on the next seven Fridays to read anything.

I really do love this series, although this was the weakest so far. I think that Aeslin mice are one of the most inspired creations in urban fantasy, and they were used to significant effect here, which was by far the most enjoyable part of the book.

Overall, I am lukewarm on Alex, who was the main character of this book - I much prefer Verity, and I am quite excited for the focus on Antimony in the next book. And Alex's love interest, Shelby, is a likeable character, but her family is almost universally ugh-worthy.

For roll 18.1, I landed on the "Start" square, which gave me a free read! I decided to read the third in Tana French's rather brilliant Dublin Murder Squad series. Each of these books focuses on a different main character. This one centers around Frank Mackey, whom we met in the last book, The Likeness. While these books are nominally crime fiction, they are really more Irish ethnography. Frank Mackey grew up in the now rapidly-gentrifying Liberties, Dublin, child of an extremely abusive father and member of one of the most dysfunctional literary Irish families in recent memory.

In 1985, when Frank was 19, he and his girlfriend Rose Daly, had planned to run away together, to England. On the night they were to leave, she never arrived at their meeting place. Assuming that she had gone without him, Frank left home. Twenty-two years later, the neighborhood is gentrifying, and Rose's suitcase is found in a derelict building, and Frank finally returns home to find out what really happened all of those years ago.

Frank Mackey and I are the same age - I was also 19 in 1985, so one of the most enjoyable parts of this book, for me, were the flashback scenes where Frank and Rose would talk about music. French nailed 1985. At 400 pages, this misses the $5.00 value by one measley page, and is worth $3.00!

A Pocketful of Rye by Agatha Christie

Roll 18.2 landed me on a #8, which called for a mystery. I had planned to read the newest Louise Penney, but, as it turned out, I needed a quick read for a challenge, so I grabbed A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie.

I know that I've previously read this book, because I remembered much of the story. One of the things that I had never noticed before, though, is that this is basically the same story as Hercule Poirot's Christmas. The victim in both mysteries is a rather horrible, wealthy man who has been involved in some sort of a swindle out in India/Africa (in the Poirot version, the victim, Simeon Lee, made his fortune in diamonds, in the Marple version, Rex Fortescue was involved in some sort of nefarious dealing related to a Blackbird mine. While the solutions are different, the similarities are striking. I first noticed that Christie uses the same quote in both books, which put me onto the parallels:

"The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small."

Anyway, even when she's recycling characters and plot points, Agatha manages to make each mystery intricate, engaging and unique. A Pocketful of Rye is 256 pages long, and is worth $3.00

Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire

Roll 18.3: I am still reading Pocket Apocalypse, and expect to be done today. This one features Alex, who isn't my favorite Price, but I'm enjoying it!

Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart

For Roll 19, I needed to read something tagged gothic for Haunted Mansion #19. I decided to pick up an older Mary Stewart that's been on my shelves for a long while - Wildfire at Midnight. Set in the Hebrides, on the Isle of Skye, this was an enjoyable old fashioned gothic romance full of murder and mountaineering. Mary Stewart knew how to tell a story, and while this wasn't as good as Nine Coaches Waiting, it was a fast, fun read. Only 224 pages long, this one was worth $3.00.

The Yard by Alex Grecian

Roll 20 put me on Paradise Pier #28, which called for a book set during the Victorian period. The first book I started wasn't doing anything for me, so I abandoned it, and decided to read The Yard by Alex Grecian, which is set in 1889 London, right on the heels of the Jack the Ripper murders. This one was full of anachronisms, but it was reasonably entertaining, although not as good as I had hoped, and one of the subplots annoyed the hell out of me. I already own the second book in the series, so I'll read on at some point. This one is 422 pages long, so the reward is $5.00.

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